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Hello Kitty Hello Kitty is one of the many fictional characters produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, and has long been the most popular one out of the company's characters. It is presented as a personified white cat, with the most distinctive feature being a bow or some other decoration on her left ear. Copyrighted in 1976, Hello Kitty is now a globally known trademark.

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Hello Kitty was originally created by Sanrio designer Ikuko Shimizu in 1974. Shimizu left the company about a year later. The second designer, Setsuko Yonekubo, took over for five years until 1980 when the task was given to Yuko Yamaguchi. who still holds the position.

Hello Kitty was given an English pedigree because British culture was popular with Japanese girls at the time of her creation. Kitty's name came from one of the cats that Alice kept in the book by Lewis Carroll. When Hello Kitty's boyfriend "Dear Daniel" was created in 1999, designers took his name from the 1971 film, , which starred Mark Lester as a character called Daniel, and features songs by the Bee Gees.

Hello Kitty's fictional world includes a whole array of friends and family members. Since 2004 she has even had a pet cat of her own called Charmmy Kitty, and a pet hamster called Sugar. Charmmy resembles Hello Kitty but has more cat-like features. Charmmy Kitty was given to Hello Kitty by her father, George White and boyfriend Dear Daniel.

she has no mouth. The official answer from Sanrio as to why Hello Kitty has no mouth (see external links belowHello Kitty is that she speaks from the heart, in no one particular language. The current designer, Yuko Yamaguchi, explains that the lack is so that she expresses no emotion. Hello Kitty usually wears a bow beneath her left ear but she can often be seen with a five petal flower instead. Rarer variations feature other accessories such as strings of flowers.

There has been some suggestion that Hello Kitty has its origins in Maneki Neko, and that the name Hello Kitty itself is a translation of Maneki Neko, which means in English. It has also been noted that the character shows a resemblance to the character Miffy, designed in 1955 by Dick Bruna and that the line drawing

Hello Kitty has been marketed in the United States from the beginning and has held the position of U.S. children's ambassador for UNICEF since 1983. She really came to her own during the late 1990s when several celebrities such as Mariah Carey adopted her as a fashion statement. Now products featuring the character can be found in virtually any American department store. Hello Kitty was once featured in an advertising campaign of the retail chain Target. Many American celebrities have contributed to the character's popularity: Mariah Carey, Cameron Diaz, Heidi Klum, Steven Tyler, Carmen Electra, Mandy Moore, and Nicky Hilton have all been spotted with Hello Kitty goods. Singer Lisa Loeb has admitted to being a fan, and has even dedicated a whole album in homage to Hello Kitty, called

Although originally aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty logo now adorns almost every product that one can imagine to have its logo on it. Though a large proportion of the merchandise are stationery products, other goods range from foods and clothing to computers and cars, and in Japan, its popularity has penetrated every aspect of Japanese daily life.

The very first product bearing Hello Kitty's image was a small clear vinyl coin purse which sold for 240 yen (today, roughly US$2.27, or €1.77). She is now a phenomenon adorning over 22,000 products and accounting for half of Sanrio's $1 billion yearly revenue.

Several electronic games have been produced where Kitty appears as the main character. These are some of them:

animes targeted towards young children have been produced. On Japanese television, Hello Kitty (and pals) have starred in at least one anime series of their own. ran for 16 episodes between 1993 and 1994. It was first released in English in November 2002.

On USA television, the American-produced aired 13 episodes on CBS in 1991.

Since 2004 the little cat has been featured on a MasterCard debit card from Legend Credit Inc. The card was released to teach young girls how to shop.

On the episode "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" of the TV series The Simpsons, the family travels to Japan and passes by the Hello Kitty merchandise factory. The yowling noises from within suggests that they were made from real cats.